Fadl al-Tahlil wa Thawabuhu al-Jazil li Ibn al-Banna
- Author died
- 471 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-‘Āṣimah
Fadl al-Tahlil wa Thawabuhu al-Jazil (فضل التهليل وثوابه الجزيل, "The Virtue of the Tahlil and Its Abundant Reward") is a thematic hadith treatise (juzʾ hadīthī) compiled by the Baghdadi Hanbali scholar Ibn al-Banna (396–471 AH / 1006–1079 CE) dedicated to the virtues and merits of reciting the formula of tahlīl ( لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ , "There is no god but Allah") .
Content and Method
The work brings together prophetic hadiths and transmitted narrations with full chains of transmission (asānīd) documented by Ibn al-Banna from his shaykhs, such as Abu al-Faraj Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Umar al-ʿAdl, Abu al-Qasim Abd al-Rahman ibn Ubayd Allah al-Harfi, Abu al-Fath Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Abi al-Fawaris, Abu al-Husayn Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Abd Allah al-Shahid, and Abu Ali al-Hasan ibn Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Bazzar .
The collected traditions address various wordings and occasions for reciting the tahlīl, as well as their specific spiritual merits, including:
- Uttering the formula with sincere devotion as a means of entering Paradise .
- Invocations uttered upon entering the marketplace and their associated rewards .
- Specific supplications incorporating the tahlīl for the morning and evening, after prayers, and during times of distress .
- The virtue of having La ilaha illa Allah as one's final words before death .
In addition to prophetic traditions, the text records related accounts from early scholars, such as the narration describing the death of Abu Zur'ah al-Razi, wherein Abu Hatim al-Razi and Muhammad ibn Muslim ibn Warah reviewed the isnad of the hadith on the final words of a believer at his bedside, prompting Abu Zurʿah to recite the chain and complete the statement just as he passed away .
Transmission and Reception
The treatise was preserved and transmitted directly through Ibn al-Banna's two sons:
- Abu Ghalib Ahmad ibn al-Hasan ibn al-Banna, from whom it was transmitted by Ashraf ibn Abi Hashim al-Hashimi by authorization (ijāzah) .
- Abu Abd Allah Yahya ibn al-Hasan ibn al-Banna, from whom it was transmitted by Abu Muhammad al-Mubarak ibn Ali ibn al-Husayn ibn al-Tabbakh and Masʿud ibn Ali ibn al-Nadir .
The hadith master Diya' al-Din al-Maqdisi (Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahid al-Maqdisi) received the treatise by auditory transmission (samāʿ) from Ashraf al-Hashimi and through ijāzah from Ibn al-Tabbakh and Ibn al-Nadir .
A manuscript of the work is preserved at the Zahiriyya Library in Damascus (under collection no. 34 / 3830) . The text was edited by Abdullah ibn Yusuf al-Juday' and published in Riyadh by Dar al-Asimah (1409 AH / 1988–1989 CE) . The additional narrations contained in the booklet that supplement the standard Six Books (Kutub al-Sittah) were later compiled in Zawaʾid al-Ajzaʾ al-Manthurah by Abd al-Salam Muhammad Allush .
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